Cougars Qualify 11 at Washington Invite

Kamila Rywelska was one of 11 Cougars to receive NCAA qualifying marks at the UW Invitational. (Photo by Mark Philbrick/BYU Photo)

SEATTLE -- The BYU men's and women's track team received 11 qualifying marks, including two automatic marks in the men's 3,000 meters, at the University of Washington Indoor Invitational on Saturday.

Junior Josh Rohatinsky and senior Bryan Lindsay both received automatic NCAA qualifying marks in the 3,000m. Rohatinsky finished second with a time of 7:51.28, nearly five seconds faster than the automatic mark and Lindsay was right behind in third place at 7:53.90.

"The kids did really well today," BYU women's track coach Craig Poole said. "We worked them very hard this week, so they were a bit tired. But we'll still get better."

The women finished the Invitational with seven qualifying marks, including marks from Amy Menlove and Lindsay Metcalf, both of whom already have received qualifying marks.

But five other women received their first qualifying marks of the season.

"We improved on our marks both in quantity and quality," Poole said. "We had a lot of mid-provisional marks."

Heidi Magill finished fourth in the 800m with a time of 2:07.66 to qualify, while Kamila Rywelska qualified in the triple jump. Junior Liis Berendsen won the women's pentathlon on Thursday on the strength of her victory in the 800m and received a provisional mark with 3,848 points.

Two Cougars received qualifying marks in the 5,000m. Cross country star Laura Turner and newcomer Chelsea Smith finished one-two in the race to earn mid-level marks.

Outside of Rohatinsky and Lindsay, the men received two other provisional marks.

Senior All-American Trent Powell cleared 17'7" in the pole vault to earn his qualifying spot and Rodrigo Mendes won the triple jump by leaping 51'11.75" on the way to earn his provisional mark.

While the men had no other qualifying marks, they managed to win two other events. Freshman Leif Arrhenius won the 35-pound weight throw and Kevin Keys won the men's heptathlon, with teammate Chris Weirich finishing third.